In meditation we are observing ourselves, our mind. We are become no familiar with how our mind works. How thoughts arise. How they cause us grief because we entertain them.
Meditation is about changing our perception of the phenomenal world - the world around us in which we live and function.
Skating Mipham says that, “Mediattion is beginning to change how we relate to the world - but not forcefully. We actually begin to change our view.”
We form habits in our thinking and acting. These habits have developed through a lifetime of living and working in the world. Many meditation masters have said that every thing we have ever experienced as a person is recorded in our consciousness. This, particular part of our mind is called the store consciousness. It is from there that our fears and our phobias, our likes and dislikes, etc. arise. In most cases, unless we have done the meditation work that is required, we are totally unaware of this process.
Whatever we have experienced through our five senses stays with us as a tiny seed sown into our consciousness. To be clear, whatever we see, hear, touch, smell or taste goes with us on this journey of life. We have the means necessary to work with it, to understand the process and thereby eliminate the fears and the anxiety that arises as a result of the remembrance of the phenomena that causes us to fear.
When I speak about or teach meditation I begin with what is commonly called shamatha. Shamatha is a Sanskrit word that means “calm-abiding.” One of my teachers relates that shamatha produces a mind “that is able to settle.” This is not sudden enlightenment. Nor is it some quick way to attain a higher state of consciousness. It is about “settling into our body in the moment. Just sitting. Feeling our body on the cushion or the chair and experiencing our mind as it races around, or moves though a series of thoughts about one thing then another.
While it sounds boring, it is very important that we observe the processes of the mind. We need to gain an understanding of how thoughts arise, how they cause us to loose our focus and how, if some thoughts are entertained, can cause us to act in ways we might later regret.
Shamatha is training the mind. The mind is like a wild animal that can be tamed with a lot of patience and work. Sakyong Mipham said that “The process of shamatha is is a training process that makes us more flexible. By flexible we mean having a greater sense of openness, in contrast to being stiff. A flexible or subtle mind is not easily distracted, does not easily contort, but is able to stay put.”
With shamatha we follow our breath and we label our thoughts. I need to say, right here, that there will always be a kind of movie running in the background all of the time. It is no different for anyone, except perhaps a meditation master who has experienced meditation for decades.
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